26/07/2018

Venus ltd run is a lovely pale transparent peachy pink shade, it came out last autumn from Creation is Messy.

I have used Venus to create these little flower bud beads, the petals are Venus swiped over a base of CiM Heffalump. This combination of colours is so feminine and delicate.

Venus by itself it a lovely peachy shade. I find it easier to work with than many other translucent colours as it does not seem to mind being worked quite hot. There was very little in the way of scumming or micro bubbles due to boiling in a very hot flame.

Venus looks beautiful etched - these simple hoops have been tumbled with silicon carbide grit in a rock tumbler for a couple of hours to give them a matt finish. They look like they have some sort of soft warm inner glow to them.

This set of beads has been made with a pretty new colour called Lilac ltd run from Creation is Messy. It became available in the UK a few weeks ago. It is sweet shade of palest lavender pink.

I have teamed it up with a lovely blue glass called Zachary ltd run and Effetre clear with Reichenbach dense black stinger details.

This green set is made with a lovely grey toned olive green called Camouflage ltd run. I've used this pretty green as a solid colour in the spacers and under a thick encased layer of clear glass to make the rounds. This green is just gorgeous, this shade looks like is would be equally at home as a swatch from a high end paint range - retro and modern at the same time.

15/04/2018

Today I am looking at Serengeti ltd run and Banana Cream ltd run glass from Creation is Messy. These colours are available to buy in the UK right now.

These beads have been made with a base of Serengeti. It looks paler in rod form and becomes this lovely dark caramel shade when worked. There is some colour variation on the surface of these beads with dark striations and patches of warmer brown tones.

The complimenting glass colours in the beads above are Butternut ltd run and Maple.

Serengeti appears to have a limited reaction with silver leaf. This tiny goddess bead has been made with a base of Serengeti burnished with fine silver leaf and then wafted in the flame to vapourise the metal. Some of the silver has been left been behind in little patches and droplets and there are some very small darker fumed areas. This bead also gives a better an idea of the natural colour variations you can achieve in a sculptural bead made with Serengeti.

I found Serengeti very easy to work with, it melted smoothly without shocking.

This mini set of beads has a base of Banana Cream ltd run decorated with Reichenbach dense black dots and stringers. Banana Cream is a very pale yellow. It is another well behaved glass, smooth to melt and no shocking.

Banana Cream does not react with copper based colours which makes it a wonderful alternative for Effetre pale ivory if those pesky reaction lines are not what you are looking for. The little beads here are Banana Cream with Vetrofond dark turquoise dots. The centre row of turquoise dots have been partially covered with Butternut ltd run. You can clearly see a reaction line between the Butternut and the turquoise and no reaction line between the turquoise and Banana Cream.

This little goddess has been made with Banana Cream with a touch of Effetre Ivory - they were next to each other on the desk and I picked up the Ivory by mistake!

Banana Cream and Effetre ivory both have a strong reaction with fine silver leaf. Vapourised silver leaf leaves little droplets and a golden fumed colour on the Banana Cream. The darker patches of glass and fumed areas around the outer edge of the goddess's tummy are Efftere ivory. Picking up the wrong glass was a happy accident in that here you can clearly see the difference in strength of the reaction with silver between these two glass colours.

11/04/2018

Today I had a look at Amphibian ltd run glass from CiM which has just become available in the UK. It is a sophisticated shade of opaque grey green. This first set of beads has been made with a base of Amphibian decorated with Ivory stringers. There is no reaction line at all between the two colours. I found the glass easy to work. It has a lot of striations where the wraps of glass melt in to one another when the bead is formed.

These nugget beads have all been made with Amphibian and Gaffer silver blue lustre frit. The first and last beads are made with Amphibian rolled in the frit. There is a tan halo around the frit where the silver content has fumed the Amphibian base glass. The second bead along was made with a base of Amphibian burnished with silver foil and then rolled in the frit. The result is a lovely caramel base and tiny droplets of silver between the "windows" of blue frit. The third bead along was also burnished with silver foil and rolled in the frit but I have wafted the bead through a slightly propane rich reducing flame. The result is very interesting, organic and metallic with areas of oil slick rainbow colour that my camera couldn't pick up

Because Amphibian appears to be so reactive with silver I decided to make some silvered stringer with it. These donut beads have been made with some silvered Amphibian stringer over a base of black glass. The resulting stringer looks golden tan and is wonderfully organic.

21/03/2018

I had to look up the word Oobleck and when I did it made me grin
from ear to ear to know that it's gooey green stuff that fell
from the sky in a Dr Seuss book. How glorious is that! Just about as
glorious as this stunning fun bright green glass new out from CiM very soon.

I am a huge fan of Oobleck ltd run, it is a truly zingy lime green. One of the lovely things to find is that along with being awesomely bright it seems to be very dense too which means that is equally bright and beautiful as tiny dots or fine stringer lines. Also it doesn't look very much paler under encasement than as a solid colour bead.

Oobleck also reacts with fine silver leaf, as shown with this tiny goddess bead. I have burnished small pieces of fine silver leaf on to the surface and flashed the bead through the flame. The heat has partially vapourised some of the silver leaf which has reacted with Oobleck to give a rich deep tan colour.

Cotswold Blue ltd run is another stunner of a colour, a delicious teal shade that sits in that special place exactly in the middle between blue and green. This glass gives a lot of striations - similar to those you see with CiM Mermaid and Quetzal ltd run.

Cotswold blue is not reactive with silver leaf at all. As you can see in this last picture, all that is left behind in the areas where silver leaf has been vapourised are the smallest droplets of silver and no colour change to the glass itself at all.

This beautiful transparent blue glass is called Sacre Bleu ltd run, it is a new glass colour coming out from Creation is Messy in a few weeks time.

I've enjoyed playing with this rich royal blue transparent, it is such a pretty colour. The real big difference with this glass and other transparent blue glass colours that I have worked with before is just how very well behaved it is in a hot flame. There was no boiling, scumming or micro-bubbles at all. These floral hearts are made with a solid Sacre Blue and decorated with twistie cane petals.

These tumbled hearts have been made with a small core of Sacre Bleu encased in a thick layer of Effetre oo6 clear glass. They have been tumble etched in a rock tumbler with silicon carbide grit for a couple of hours. The little heart imprints have created a glossy indent where the rich blue give a really interesting visual highlight.

Half of these Sacre Bleu hoops have been tumbled etched with silicon
carbide grit in a rock tumbler to give them a sea glass finish. I like the matt finish but prefer the glossy finish in with this colour.

Sacre Bleu is a really close match for Neon Blue ltd run which came out in early 2014.

I just love this colour, I am a real big fan of bluey green and greeny blue and all things aqua when it come to glass and Serenity ltd run ticks the prettiness box for me! It is another brilliantly behaved colour in a hot flame which also suits me well. Not a sign of boiling of bubbles at all.
Both Sacre Bleu and Serenity are so easy to work with.

These hearts are made with a base of Serenity which I have decorated with swipes of twistie cane for petals.

These hearts have been made with a small core of Serenity encased in a thick layer of Effetre oo6 clear glass. They have been tumble etched in a rock tumbler with silicon carbide grit for a couple of hours. Serenity is a great colour for this technique, it looks really pretty.

Half of these Serenity hoops have been tumbled etched with silicon carbide grit in a rock tumbler to give them a sea glass finish. I have strung them side by side for comparison with the glossy ones, both look great to me.

Serenity is a very good match for the now impossible to find Breeze ltd run colour that came out in spring 2013.

There will be a new collection of ltd run CoE 104 glass colours coming out this spring from Creation is Messy. There is a preview page here.

One of my favourites so far is this gorgeous opal blue called Merryweather ltd run. It is a light semi transparent opal blue glass which is very easy to work with in the flame. Like many opal colours it is quite a stiff glass. The flower bud beads shown here are made with a core of Merryweather with effetre clear petals swiped over the top. They seem to have some sort of inner glow to them.

This second set of buds are made with a core of Merryweather with CiM
Sacre Bleu ltd run (more about this lovely transparent blue in a future
blog post) which is a beautiful combination.

The floral button here shows how large dots Merryweather look when layered over CiM Freman. This takes away some of the transparency but gives beautiful depth to the petals.

The little flower button here was made with Merryweather dots over another fabulous new colour called Oobleck ltd run. This time the petals have not been layered up over another colour and you can clearly see how the bright green is showing through the semi transparent Merryweather petals and giving them a greenish tint.

Last up, some Merryweather hoops that I have tumbled etched with silicon carbide grit in a rock tumbler. Many opal glass colours do not etch easily or even at all with Etchall or other commercial chemical etching products. I tend not to try that method any longer for opal colours and head straight to the grit! As you can see here Merryweather also looks great with a matt finish.

14/01/2018

A glass colour study in blue looking at pairs of colours layered up together. The base of these
flowers beads is either an opaque or opal glass. The top layer of petals
have been swiped on with either clear or transparent glass.

A glass colour study in purple looking at pairs of colours layered up together. The base of these flowers beads is either an opaque or opal glass. The top layer of petals have been swiped on with either clear or transparent glass.

29/10/2017

This trio of lovely green shades of glass are all new limited run colours out this autumn from Creation is Messy. These dotty monster beads from left to right are made with Apple Pie ltd run, Turtle Power ltd run and Juniper ltd run decorated with Butternut ltd run spots. I made these guys to donate to Beads of Courage UK and Ireland.

Apple Pie ltd run is a pretty pale pastel green that does not show any striations on the finished beads. It is melts smoothly and is quite soft. It is very easy to work with and coped very well with the texture tool (Karen Leonardo featherbone mashers) that I used to created these leaf beads.

These sweet little tab beads here show a direct comparison between Apple Pie on the left and Primavera on the right. Apple Pie is darker and a touch more blue than Primavera. The drawings on these are doodles that my daughter has drawn and they are also destined to become Act of Courage beads for some brave kids on the Beads of Courage program in the UK.

Turtle Power ltd run is a bright mid toned green. It melts smoothly, is well behaved in the flame and coped well when chilled quickly by the texture tool I was using. I am not sure who made the tool that I used to texture these beads with but it looks like pair of concave clam shell plates on the end of long tweezers.

Juniper ltd run is a rich streaky dark green opaque shade. It puts me in mind of Sherwood ltd run. I used simple parallel mashers to create these beads. The mashers have created concentric chill marks on the surface of the leaves which I have not flame polished out as I think it adds an interesting and subtle texture to the finished design.

Rapunzel ltd run is one of the newest colours out from CiM this autumn. It is a very pretty opaque lilac which looks like a pinker version of Heffalump. These little bird beads show difference between the two, Hefalump bird on the left and a Rapunzel bird on the right. These beads have been photographed in natural daylight.

Next I have some Rapunzel flower bud beads with Enchanted petals to show. Both Rapunzel and Enchanted look different shades under different kinds of lighting, These buds show how they photograph under white LED lighting.

I sometimes have trouble with boiling the glass and creating micro-bubbles in pale transparent colours because I tend to work on the hot side (Carlisle mini CC torch on 2 oxygen concentrators). Enchanted was very well behaved for me and a real pleasure to work with.

This next pair of flower bud beads have a base of Buttermilk ltd run with Enchanted petals over the top. Buttermilk is a lovely creamy looking pale ivory colour which looks just lovely under the soft transparent lavender of Enchanted.

These beads have been photographed under white LED lights.

Buttermilk ltd run can be fumed with silver leaf, shown here with this tiny goddess bead. The darker areas are where the silver leaf has been burnished on to the bead and vapourised in the flame to leave small caramel tan areas of colour behind.

20/09/2017

CiM Chrysalis ltd run was created in response to a request for an opaque version of Kryptonite. The hearts on the left are Chrysalis and the dotty beads on the right are made with Kryptonite. Chrysalis is a much paler pastel shade of green than Kryptonite, very pretty. It is denser than Kryptonite and does not appear to let any light pass through it at all but it also has special glossy look to it something akin to the gloss you see with some of the Effetre opalino colours. Chrysalis is a very pretty colour in it's own right and a welcome new addition to the 104 palette.

All of these flower bud beads have a base of Chrysalis with transparent teal petals swiped on over the top. The petals on the left most pair are made with Poolside ltd run and the petals on the right hand buds are made with Aegean ltd run. When placed as a very thin layer in this way these two pretty teal transparent glasses look very similar. In real life the Poolside beads are a touch lighter than Aegean.

These next flower bead pairs were made with a base of CiM teal colours in various hues which have been partially encased with Effetre clear glass. On the left is Poolside, Aegean in the middle and Tuscan Teal ltd run on the right hand side. You can see very clearly here how different Poolside and Aegean look when used to create the body of a bead. Below is a leaf created with layers of Poolside, Aegean and Tuscan Teal ltd run which gives it an effective looking ombre appearance.

This collection of spooky ghost beads are made with various shades of Creation is Messy opal white glass. From left to right there is Cirrus, Spooky ltd run which is coming out very soon, followed by Frozen ltd run, Marshmallow ltd run, and last up Marble ltd run.

Spooky seems to sit about half way between Cirrus and Frozen in terms of translucency. It is really easy to work with. Like many of CiM's opal glasses it melts slowly and cools quickly making it super glass to use for sculptural beads.

11/09/2017

This collection of flower bud beads have been made with some very pretty CiM opal blues including Tardis ltd run which will be available soon. On the left is Electric Avenue, the middle pair are Tardis and the last pair are made with Atlantis.

First up I want to talk about Tardis ltd run, which is a new shade to the 104 palette. It is a mid toned navy blue - the phrase stonewashed indigo denim springs to mind. The first pair of flower buds have a core of Tardis with Effetre clear petals swiped over the top. The second pair have a core of Effetre white with Tardis petals. Tardis looks bluer as the base of a bead and less saturated when used in a thin layer on top of the white core. It is a stiff glass, melts smoothly and is well behaved in the flame.

Electric Avenue and Atlantis are both part of the CiM regular line and have been available for a few years. Electric Avenue opal blue is a much bluer than Tardis, a bright royal blue even. It has s similar intensity of colour when used to create both the core and as thin petals on the top of the paler core colour. As with Tardis, and many other CiM Opal colours, Electric Avenue is a stiff glass. It melts slowly and cools quickly.

Last to show from me today is Atlantis, another pretty opal in the CiM blue palette, though this one is very much a bright turquoise shade. As with Electric avenue, the colour is not noticeably different when used a thin partial encasement layer.

27/08/2017

There is a lovely trio of Autumnal shades on the way from CiM. From left to right these colours are called Canoe ltd run, Harvest ltd run and Monarch ltd run. My favourite of the three is Canoe, it has lots of character and strikes to a range of soft warm brown tones. When you melt Canoe it looks like a washed out and pale beige, the colours come in when you bring the bead back to the flame to strike it.

Canoe also strikes in the kiln, the spacers in this set were made 2 to a mandrel, the first spacer was struck as the second was made and the second went into the kiln un-struck. As you can see, all of the spacers have come out of the kiln a uniform shade. There is a reaction between Canoe and fine silver leaf, no colour change as such but a lovely metallic sheen is left when the leaf is vapourised in the flame.

These little flower bud beads have a core of Harvest ltd run with some Orange Crush ltd run petals swiped on top. The stamens were painted on with an encased stringer (Loch Ness ltd run over Daffodil ltd run).

Harvest is a very pretty mid orange opaque, slightly brighter than Creamsicle and quite similar in appearance to a long time sold out favourite of mine called Alley Cat ltd run.

The core of this next pair of metal beads is made with a pretty pale orange opaque glass called Monarch ltd run. Looking through my glass stash, the only glass I found that looked at all similar in rod form was Effetre yellow ochre - but the beads that came out of the kiln were not even close!

The Monach beads have dots, the Effetre yellow ochre beads have black hearts. The yellow ocher came out of the kiln looking more like a caramel brown than the beautiful apricot orange of Monarch.